Establishing a Scholarship FAQs

What is the Cincinnati Scholarship Foundation?

The Cincinnati Scholarship Foundation manages and facilitates the generous financial gifts of individuals, families, businesses or groups to award scholarship funds to students. Last year the CSF provided scholarships for over 1400 students, from over 90 different scholarships. This year’s goal is to grow our foundation base with 25 new scholarships.

What exactly is a scholarship?

Scholarships are tools for long-term investment in the education of young people. Individuals, families, businesses or groups make a financial gift. If it is to be a one-time gift, we will invest the money on their behalf and use the interest to provide the scholarships. If it is to be an annual gift, we will award the entire amount in scholarships and notify you each year when it is time to renew the annual gift. We invest that gift on their behalf and the proceeds are used to provide scholarships. Most foundations award scholarships based on a criteria that is important to the donor; Such as a specific major, grade point average, or financial need. We also function as a go-between by recruiting and selecting worthy students who meet the criteria.

Why start a scholarship rather than make a gift to a scholarship fund at a college?

There is nothing wrong with a gift to a University. However, a scholarship through the CSF is more flexible. Your money is not tied to a certain university unless you want it to be. A worthy student can take the scholarship to the university that’s right for them.

What are the advantages of establishing a scholarship with CSF?

Donors/businesses come to us because they want to give back, but there’s usually something more. Scholarships are very personal. Many of our scholarships are established to honor someone, maybe a family member or a company founder. Some people establish a scholarship in their own name in their will. For some people, it’s important that their name lives on in philanthropy after they are gone. We call that planned giving and those future gifts can be arranged today and count toward our goal of 25 new scholarships. Your gift can be based on something that matters to you. Maybe you love art. Maybe your career in engineering is something you want to pass on. Our students send the donors thank you letters and progress reports and it can be very rewarding to see the difference the scholarship made in the student’s life.

How much money do you need to start a scholarship?

Some scholarships are started with one major gift and others grow over time. There’s no magic number so don’t be intimidated. One or two thousand dollars can mean a lot to a student. The smallest scholarship CSF manages is $500. Some of the foundations you may have heard of, such as the Marvin Lewis Foundation, benefit from fund raising events Coach Lewis and others sponsor. If you would like to help us meet our goal of 25 new scholarships, we can work with you to discover what scholarship will be best for you.